The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-11-24

can bear; too much is put upon me and
am not to blame if / am somewhat re-
vengeful and unrelentng." Then
think of the little child at the
moving of some goods from a
store. The father was putting some rolls
of goods on the child's arm, package after
package, and some one said: "This child
is being overloaded, and so much ought
not to be put upon her." when the child
responded: "Father knows how much
can carry;" and God, our Father, will not
allow too much imposition on his children.
In the day of eternity it will be found
you had not one annoyance too many,
not one evaporation too many, not one
outrage too many. Your Heavenly Father
knows how much you can carry.
Forever and forever, o nearer, associate
the sunset with your magnanimous, out
and out, unlim tied remuneration of all
hatreds and forgiveness of all foes. adj
NIT it is the most difficult OF all graces to
practice, and at the start you may make a
complete failure, but keep on in the at.
tempt to practice it. Shakespeare wrote
ten plays before be reached Merchant of
Venice, twenty eight plays before he
reached Macbeth. And gradually you
will come from the easier graces to the
most difficult. Beside that, it is not mat
ter of personal determination so much as
the laying hold of the almighty arm
of God, who will help us to
do any thing we ought to do.
Remember that in all personal controver-
sizes the one least to blame will have to
take the first step at pacifcation, if it is
ever effective. The contest between
JNcahinaS A,.;e
through history, but Aristippus, who was
least to blame, went to Eschines and
said: "Shall we not agree to be friends
before we make ourselves the laughing.
stock Of the whole countryW And Es.
chimes said: "Thou art far better man
than l. for began the quarrel; but thou
hast been the first in healing tho breach"
And they were always friend afterwards.
So let the one of you that is least to blame
take the first step toward concilia-
ton. The one most in the wrong
will never take it. Oh, it makes
one feel splendidly to be able, by Gods
help, to practice unlimited forgiveness.
1t improves ones body and soul. 1t will
make you measure three or four more
inches around the chest, and improve
your respiration so that you can taxa a
deeper and longer breath. 1t improves
the countenance by scattering the gloom
and Frightening the forehead, and loosen
ing the pinched look about the nostril and
lip, and makes you somewhat like God
himself.
He is omnipotencs, and we can not COPY
that. He is Independent of all the ua.
verse, and we can not copy that.
He is creative, and we can not copy
that. He is omnipresent, and we can
not copy that. But he forgives with
a broad sweep all faults and all
neglects and all insults and all wrong
doing, and in that we may copy him with
mighty success. Go harness that subli me
action of your soul to an hour when the
gate of Heaven opens to let the day pass
into eternities, and some of the glories es.
cape this way through the brief opening.
We talk about the Italian sunsets, and
sunset amid the Apennines, and sunset
amid the Cordilleras. But will tell you
how you may see a grander sunset than
any mere lover of nature ever beheld;
that is by finging into it all your hatreds
and animosities, and let the horses of
fire trample them, and the chariots of fire
roll over them, and the spearmen
of fire stab them, and the beach
of fire consume them, and the bill
lows of fire overwhelm them. The
sublimest thing God does is the sunset
The sublimest thing you can do is forgive.
ness. Along the glowing banks of this
coming evening let the divine and the hu-
man be concurrent.
Again: We should not let the sun 90
down on our wrath, because it is of little
importance what the world says of you or
does to you when you have the afiiuent
God OF the sunset as your provider and
defender. People talk as though it were
a fixed spectacle of nature and always the
same. But no one ever saw two sunsets
alike; and if the world has existed six
thousand years there have been about two
million one hundred and ninety thousand
sunsets, each of them as distinct from
all the other pictures in the gallery ef
the sky as Titian'S Last Supper" Ru.
bens' descent From the Cross, - Raphael's
TRANSPORTATION" and Michael Angeles
LAST Judgment" are distinct from each
other. If that God of such infinite
resources that he can put on the wall of
the sky each night more than the Louvre,
and the Luxembourg, and the Vatican,
and the Dresden, and Venetian galleries,
all in one, is my God and your God, our
provider and protector, what is the use of
our worrying about any human antagon-
ism? If we are misinterpreted, the God
of the many-colored sunset can put the
right color on our action. II He can
afford to hang such masterpieces
over the outside wall of Heaven
and have them obliterated in an hour, he
must be very rich in resources, and can
put us through in safety. If all the garni-
ture of the western heavens at eventide is
but the upholstery of one of the windows
of our future home, what small business
for US to be chasing enemies! Let not this
sun go down upon your wrath.
Mohammed said: "Ths sword is the kew
of Heaven and hell; drop of blood shed
is better than fasting, and wounds in the
Day of Judgment Respondent as YER
million, and odoriferous as musk" But
my hearers, in the last day we
will find just the opposite of that
to be true, and that the sword never I'm.
locks Heaven, and that he who heals
wounds is greater than he who makes
them, and that on the same ring-are two
keye: Gods forgiveness of us and our for.
giveness of enemies, and these two KEYS
unlock Paradise.
And now l wish for all of you a beauti.
full sunset in your earthly existence. With
some of you it has been long day of
trauhIa and with ctharv Of x,o, 4 L